‘That’s just who he is’: Father suffers widespread burns after trying to help neighbors in Oregon Road fire

Desperate to reach four of her other children at her parents’ house, Larissa Knutsen jumped into her SUV with her 7-week-old baby just minutes after receiving evacuation orders because of the Oregon Road fire. But her husband was not in the car.

“My husband was just standing there,” she remembered.

Justin Knutsen wanted to stay and help their neighbors. Driving away from their house and farm of four years, Larissa didn’t know her husband would be in a hospital with severe burns the next time she saw him.

Justin went door-to-door in his shirt and shorts telling his neighbors they needed to leave – even as his family’s home burned in the background.

Just as he resolved to join his wife at her parents’ home, the wind changed and the fire was on top of him. The only respite from the inferno on either side was a small strip of asphalt left on Oregon Road. Justin mashed the gas pedal to the floor of his truck trying to get past the fire. But as the steering wheel became too hot to hold, his old truck overheated and died.

Justin jumped out of his truck – running in a direction he hoped was not full of flames.

Donna Howell watched the horror unfold. She was in a “mad scramble” of her own trying to escape her burning home, but as she backed out of her driveway, the silhouette of a man dashed past her and disappeared into the smoke. Behind him was a “wall of fire chasing him down.”

Driving her car in the same direction, Howell could not find Justin through the smoke. She wailed her car horn as she raced through the smoke – hoping to evade the flames but not hit him.

Eventually, Justin was able to find the car and get in – screaming “I love you” over and over again to the stranger. Together, the pair escaped the smoke and flames.

“He was in so much pain. I really felt sorry for him. His legs were covered in burns. It looked like his skin was dripping from his face,” Howell recalled. “But it was like a miracle. He escaped and so did I. It was a horrible situation, but I feel like the Lord was looking after us.”

Larissa also credited divine intervention.

“I’ve been praying constantly. I am very grateful to God,” she said. “I believe, as horrible as it may seem, that the people who picked him up who were so late getting out themselves – I believe that it was meant to happen so that he would be saved. It was God that put her there to save him.”

Howell, Larissa said, was “literally his angel coming in, swooping in and saving him.”

‘Not used to being the one needing help‘

From 22-year-old Heavenly to newborn Liberty, Larissa and Justin have a large family, including one child already “in heaven” before the fire, according to the mother of nine.

Larissa was born and raised in Elk – her father a longtime member of the Riverside school board. Justin had a much more chaotic childhood jumping between foster homes.

“Some homes were good, some were bad,” Larissa said of her husband’s upbringing, citing his difficulties as one reason their family is so close-knit today.

Her father described Justin as “a little bit wild” before joining the military as a young man and serving in Afghanistan.

“The army calmed him down, and then my daughter calmed him down some more,” Gary Vanderholm said of his son-in-law.

In addition to attending to the family’s small farm, Justin has worked in construction. Larissa is a certified nurse’s assistant but had planned not to work for the next year after her youngest daughter was born in July.

No one was surprised Justin stayed behind to help his neighbors.

“That’s just who he is,” Larissa said. “It’s just built into him to want to help other people before himself.”

The cause and origin of the Oregon Road fire are still being investigated. It was first reported at 4 p.m. Friday, and by the next morning, more than 8,000 acres had burned. Beginning someplace northeast of Elk in north Spokane County, southern winds of up to 19 mph put the Knutsen home directly in the path of the fire.

Vanderholm had been driving four of his grandchildren toward the fire before turning back, because heavy smoke left him unable to see the road.

At the same time, Larissa hurried their oldest daughter, her fiancé and three step-grandchildren into their car. As they left, Heavenly Knutsen thought her father had joined their mother – fleeing the farm in the family Suburban.

“I wish he had come with us, and I thought he had,” the 22-year-old said.

Larissa heard from her husband an hour later. He was at the corner of Oregon and Jefferson roads and was about to leave to join his family.

“He called me and he said our house was gone. He said he’ll see me soon,” Larissa remembered. Not hearing from him for another 40 minutes, she was “deathly scared” and tracked his phone. He had barely moved.

In another 40 minutes, she got a call from a number she did not recognize.

“I didn’t want to answer,” she said. “I knew what it was.”

Larissa rushed to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. Justin was alive but badly burned, she was told.

“He had blisters everywhere, but he was awake and talking,” she said, remembering him apologizing over and over again for not going with her when he could have. “But I told him to stop. He’s alive. That’s what’s important.”

Around 10 p.m., he was flown to the burn unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

After two surgeries over the past few days, doctors expect Justin to fully recover. He has second-degree burns on 27% of his body and is expected to be hospitalized at the Seattle hospital for at least the next month.

Larissa hopes to visit her husband soon – though travel is difficult, because her youngest daughter is still nursing. In their brief phone conversations in between treatment, her husband seems in good spirits but struggles with his current lack of mobility.

“He’s having a hard time having to accept so much help,” she said. “He’s not used to being the one needing help.”

Oregon Road fire is not contained

Even as Justin and his family begin their healing, the Oregon Road fire rages on. As of Tuesday morning, approximately 11,036 acres had burned and it was zero percent contained, according to the incident management team’s spokesperson Dana Leavitt.

A total of 633 personnel are on the ground either fighting the fire or “assessing the situation” and looking at “overarching strategies” to contain it.

“The strategy continues to be full suppression with direct attack efforts where possible and 24-hour staffing. Firefighting resources are still expected to arrive throughout the day as they are released from other incidents in the area. Activities in the previous 24 hours included structure protection, line construction and direct suppression utilizing engines, hand crews, bulldozers, helicopters and airplanes,” according to a Tuesday morning news release.

According to Leavitt, the focus remains on the fire’s southeast corner – where fire was “still warmest overnight.”

Rain fell over Spokane County during most of Tuesday, raising hopes first responders could put an end to both the Gray and Oregon Road fires. But while rain could “moisten” some of the grasses, sticks, forest litter or small shrubs in the path of the fire, larger fuels, like trees, have not gotten “enough moisture to really be beneficial,” Leavitt said.

One person, who remains unidentified, has died in the Oregon Road fire, and the number of injuries from the blaze remains unknown, Leavitt added. Level 3 (immediate) evacuations remain in effect for areas east and southeast of Elk. The evacuation center is located at Riverside High School.

Since their home was destroyed, the Knutsen family has been staying with Larissa’s parents. They have had an “incredible outpouring of love” from their community, Larissa said.

“We’ve had truckloads full of clothes and food and toiletries, and that has made me feel like I can get through this,” she said.

Many of the donations have come from the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints , where her family attends.

“The church has meant so much, and it means so much they are there for us now,” she added.

Family friend Jeff Hunsaker set up a fundraiser on GiveSendGo, a Christian GoFundMe alternative where donations can be given in both money and prayers. As of Tuesday evening, Hunsaker had raised $7,217 for the Knutsen family.

‘He was being brave’

Back at the place where her home used to be, Larissa felt like she was in a “crazy world.”

“I knew in my brain that my house had been on fire. But I expected something to be left. It was completely gone,” she said.

She did not allow any of her children to go with her while visiting the site over the weekend.

“My 12-year-old and 11-year old kept asking to go see the house. They wanted to find their toys. Finally, I showed them pictures, and there’s really nothing left,” she said.

Prodigy Knutsen, 12, said there were “valuable things” he had left in the house he wanted to find – including a new watch and some money he had saved up. But most important was his 7-week-old kitten that he had not yet named.

Coinciding with their sister’s birth, the younger members of the Knutsen clan were gifted kittens. Though many of the animals on the family farm survived, the kittens did not.

“I wish I had given them a name,” he said.

Playing with a toy truck, 4-year-old Wesson announced he would become a firefighter.

“I want to be a firefighter when I grow up and save people,” he yelled.

As Wesson and his 2-year-old brother, Axel, rolled around on the floor – apparently fighting over a ghost that may or may not be in their grandparents’ basement – Vanderholm commented the young boys “need their father back to get them to stop roughhousing.”

Eleven-year-old Kassidy Knutsen said it would be “too hard” to speak with her father on the phone. She has “spent a lot of time hiding and crying” since Friday. Even still, Kassidy said she understood why her father had to stay behind.

“He was being brave,” she said. “He is a hero.”